Holidays In The Sun

Vacation

From: New York, United States

It's been like the middle of summer in the UK this week and what better way to end a few days of unexpected heat than one of the songs of the summer, Neutral Acid King from the mysterious Vacation? It's a slow burning classic that starts like the quiet parts of Somebody Kill Me (aka The Cure song) in the Wedding Singer and slowly evolves over seven minutes until it's burned into your soul. 


Go Try

 Vacation - Neutral Acid King by The 405

Go Visit

Vacation - Facebook : Bandcamp

The Orchid Squad

Anna Lena & The Orchids

From: Liverpool, United Kingdom

When Roy Evans was manager of Liverpool he had a penchant for Norwegian footballers. The scouse love of all things Norwegian extends beyond the football field to the stage with the enchanting, wistful folk of honorary scouse (via Norway) chanteuse Anna Lena and her Orchids.  Check out the captivating Child which sounds a little like the Sundays if they'd been descended from the Vikings. 


This is music is so fragile you fear it might break before it reaches your ears.


Go Try


 Child by Anna Lena & The Orchids 

 Statues by Anna Lena & The Orchids

 Release the Hounds by Anna Lena & The Orchids

Go Visit


Anna Lena & The Orchids - Facebook : Website : Last.FM


Go View

And isn't it ironic... don't you think

Britpop Returns

While Seattle was working up the Grunge (see last night's review of Mark Yarm's oral history of Grunge), the UK was reacting against the anti-fashion, heavy punk sound via the more upbeat, optimistic Britpop movement. Spearheaded by Blur and Oasis and incorporating everyone from Pulp to The Boo Radleys, from Elastica to Supergrass, Britpop drew on the UK's rich pop history to create a sound unashamedly wrapped in the union jack reclaiming it from the hands of the political far right. 

With a delicious sense of irony that we're told our cousins across the Atlantic lack Britpop is back. But, as if to confirm that Karl Marx was right, history is repeating itself as farce because it's a gang of American, Canadian and Australian bands who are reviving the sound at a time when British music has never sounded more in thrall to the US urban sound. Yes the latest British Invasion is brought to you courtesy of America and Australia. Now that is ironic Alanis! If I were Viva Brothers manager I'd be booking the plane tickets now.

Union Jacks optional.

The Lions
From:Calgary, Alberta, Canada

On their new album 'Iconoclasts' Canadian rockers The Lions summon up the spirit of Oasis like mediums at a Britpop seance.

Go Try

MP3 - The Lions - Groove (Scene 1)
MP3 - The Lions - Syd...Is A Serial Killer
These tracks are published with the permission of Green Light Go so please don't claim breach of copyright

Alpine White
From: San Francisco, United States

Where the Lions indulge themselves in the recorded works of Oasis San Franciscan foursome Alpine White seek their musical solace in the Kinks on their latest EP, The Hale, which is scheduled for release in November. 

Go Try

MP3 - Alpine White - The Evidence
These tracks are published with the permission of Green Light Go so please don't claim breach of copyright

 

Grand Atlantic
From: Brisbane, Australia

Grand Atlantic sound a little like Oasis if Liam had written all the songs, so that'd be a little like Beady Eye then!

Go Try

MP3 - Grand Atlantic - Poison To The Vine
MP3 - Grand Atlantic - Carved From Stone
These tracks are published with the permission of Green Light Go so please don't claim breach of copyright

Fallon Cush
From: Sydney, Australia

The more reflective end of the new Britpop.

Go Try

MP3 - Fallon Cush - The Trouble With A Moonlit Night
MP3 - Fallon Cush - Disintegrate 
These tracks are published with the permission of Green Light Go so please don't claim breach of copyright

Grunge Tank

Everybody Loves Our Town
Mark Yarm

As a music related site it's perhaps a little surprising that the Devil has never posted a review of a music related book in the five years since the site was launched. Well that anomaly is corrected today with a review of  Everybody Loves Our Town subtitled, very accurately, "an oral history of Grunge" by former Blender magazine senior editor Mark Yarm (his real name and no relation to Mudhoney's Mark Arm).

I wanted to tell you that Mark Yarm spins a good yarn because it sounded appropriate and was a nice neat introduction. But unfortunately it's not true, Mark doesn't spin anything he just let's the people who created, participated in and eventually helped to destroy grunge tell their tales. It's an unadulterated journey into a scene that changed music, fashion and the world we live in forever.

Letting the participants tell the story provides insights like no other approach . The unique grunge sound, a cross between punk and heavy metal, is traced back to the opening of the Gorilla Gardens venue with it's metal and punk stages. This lead to the two genres bleeding together to spawn the Grunge sound we know and love today. It also provides possibly the best one line description of the genre as "complaining set to a drop D tuning". There's little mythologising and a lot of truth telling, although as you'd expect from an oral history one grunge aficionado's truth is another's lies and there is frequent disagreement over arcane elements of the grunge phenomenon. 


This authorial hands off approach both helps and hinders when it comes to chronicling the relationship between Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain. It is refreshing to see the story through the eyes of those who were closest to the development and ultimate destruction of the two main players in the drama but it also serves to confuse as positions have become entrenched and the participants are unable to take a sober, detached view of events. 


My only gripe with Yarm's approach is that it can get a little difficult to keep up with the references and a little more help via the tried and tested publishing technique of footnotes would have made the story a little easier to follow. But hey maybe that's a little too mainstream for a book on the outsiders art form of grunge.  

Everybody Loves Our Town is a book that's not just for fans of grunge it's a book for fans of life.

The book has made me ponder my favourite 5 grunge spawned tracks and, after much deliberation and arguing with myself here they are in some sort of order...


  Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit by Fenerium

  Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden

  "Touch Me I'm Sick" - Mudhoney (vinyl) by Scottreks3

  Pearl Jam - MTV Unplugged Session - Jeremy by kcr666


Hole
Celebrity Skin

Thankless Task

Wild Beasts

From: Cumbria, United Kingdom

Those of you who follow the blog will know that I've been an admirer of Wild Beasts for a long time. I was however underwhelmed and a little disappointed by their latest album Smother. I'm glad to see that their next single, Reach A Bit Further, will include the simply gorgeous Thankless Thing, recorded as part of the Smother sessions but not included in the album, as a b-side to their next single to be released in a few weeks time. It's better than most of the tracks on Smother and, if like me you were a little disappointed in Smother, take a listen and have your faith in the band restored.


Go Try

 Wild Beasts - Thankless Thing by DominoRecordCo

Go Visit

Wild Beasts - Facebook : Website

Video Killed The Radio Star 25th September 2011

Picture courtesy of deviant art by sixhundredsixty  for more check out http://sixhundredsixty.deviantart.com/

Lovedrug
Dinosaur



The Go Round
Lonesome Blues


Lonesome Blues by the Go Round from Jordan BRUNER on Vimeo.

Lola Colt
Boom Boom Blasphemy

The Devil's Round Up 25th September 2011

This week's round up of the tracks that I haven't had the space to post...

The Electroscopes

From: Northampton, United Kingdom

The Electroscopes (or just simply Electroscopes depending who you ask) are a one man band from Northampton who sounds exactly like Royksopp if they were born on a council estate in middle England rather than the shores of a crystal clear fjord. 

Go Try

Made a mistake by the electroscopes by electroscopes

John Knox Sex Club

From: From: Glasgow, Scotland

More intelligent, emotional, gut wrenching rock from a band that are rapidly becoming one of my favourite bands of 2011. 

Go Try


 John Knox Sex Club - Honestly the beast by The 405 


The Puncture Repair Kit
From: Cambridge, United Kingdom

Cambridge folkies Puncture Repair Kit are more twee than a book of Cath Kidson knitting patterns and somehow make Belle & Sebastian sound like a death metal band. The word nice fits them like a pair of Laura Ashley gloves. 
Go Try


 Draws Lines by The Puncture Repair Kit 

It's The Weekend Again

7 Day Weekend
From: Perth, Australia

One band that I carelessly omitted from last week's weekend special were Perth's cheeky lo-fi electro poppers 7 Day Weekend. They're a hidden gem that are difficult to find. They don't appear to have the usual on line accoutrements other than a Last.Fm site. If John Peel were still alive they'd be all over his show like a rash.


After Dinner Mint is a strange little tyke. It sounds like an out of body experience and is scarier than a Steven Moffat penned episode of Doctor Who. The equally odd House of Representatives sounds like Madonna's Vogue put through a mincer and re-imagined by irreverent Flying Lizards fans. On Closet Fan the girls sound like they're jamming with whatever they could find on the garage floor.


If every week had a 7 day weekend what a wonderful world that would be!


Go Try

MP3 - 7 Day Weekend - After Dinner Mint
MP3 - 7 Day Weekend - House of Representatives
MP3 - 7 Day Weekend - Closet Fan
This track is linked direct from the 7 Day Weekend Last.FM site and is therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright


Go Visit

7 Day Weekend - Last.FM

Covering All Bases

The Vichy Government
From: London, United Kingdom


At last a challenger to King Q4's Love Buzz for the much coveted Devil's award for most imaginative, inventive and original cover of the year. Please be upstanding and give a huge round of applause to The Vichy Government's cover of the David Bowie penned Mott the Hoople hit All The Young Dudes.

As befits a band renowned for their obstinate refusal to bend to the whims of the music industry, or anyone come to think of it, they've completely deconstructed the song and turned it into their own song. This is no X Factor poor quality photocopy, no slavish reproduction, no crap karaoke version the Vichy Government totally deconstruct the song, picking at it's flesh until there's little left but the carcass.

One day all cover versions will be like this.


Go Try

  The Vichy Government - All The Young Dudes by Rare Breed Discs


Go Visit


The Vichy Government - Website : Facebook


Go View

The Vichy Government
All The Young Dudes

Life Thru A Lens

Young Prisms

From: San Francisco, United States

San Franciscan quintet Young Prisms are flag wavers for the next generation of dreamy, distortion drenched, honey coated shoe gazers. On tracks like the sweet as sugar Sugar it's a softer focus, bordering on slacker, take on the ear splitting cacophony of shoe gazing pioneers My Bloody Valentine. Where Kevin Shields buried his beautiful melodies in a wall of uncompromising noise Young Prisms smother theirs with a pleasantly soothing syrup. Where My Bloody Valentine battered you into submission YP take you gently by the hand and lead you to somewhere calmer, more restful. 


But it's not all honey dripping anthems. These young pitch benders are not afraid to resort to random ear bashings when the mood take them layering their mellow masterpieces with unexpected blasts of white noise that tear your tympanic membrane asunder.

File under promising.


Go Try

 Young Prisms - If You Want To by The Drift Record Shop

 Young Prisms - Sugar by The Drift Record Shop

Go Visit


Young Prisms - Facebook : Last.FM


Go View


Young Prisms
These Days





Young Prisms
In Your Room

Peel Slowly & See

The Peelies

From: Montréal, Canada

The French contribution to the great punk revolution of the late 70s was, let's face it, limited at best. The musically influential but vocally challenged Metal Urbain and Ca Plane Pour Moi from the little lamented Plastic Bertrand is not a great legacy. So I approached French Canadian fem punkers The Peelies with the expectation of being underwhelmed. Well how foolish do I look now? As befits a band named after the Hawaiian goddess of the volcano, the Peelies are a force of nature and are primed and ready to explode.


Does & Hoes sounds like the Beach Boys re-imagined by a super group formed from the remnant of the Raincoats and Shampoo. Going Down is all garage guitars, randomly bashed tambourines and girl gang vocals. It makes me want to change my sex just so I can be a part of their gang. Dye Your Eyes is throwaway punk that sounds like it's been borrowed from the CBGBs archive. 


Peel slowly and see the Peelies explode.

Go Try

Going Down by The Peelies

 Dye Your Eyes by The Peelies

 Does & Hoes by The Peelies



Go Visit

The Peelies - Facebook : Website : Last.FM

Go View


The Peelies
Medication

We Need A Holiday

The Devil's on holiday today so here are some holiday related tunes to keep your ears happy...

 Holiday by mermaids

 Cool Your Jets, Kiddo by the Holiday Plan

 I saw the light by HOLIDAY

 Holiday by Jukeboxtheghost

 Rainy Holiday by stringbox

 last holiday by gloriousday

Video Killed The Radio Star 18th September 2011

Picture courtesy of deviant art by sixhundredsixty  for more check out http://sixhundredsixty.deviantart.com/

Trophy Wife
Wolf



Wilco
Born Alone



S.C.U.M
Whitechapel



All the following videos in todays post were recommended to the Devil by Radar Music Videos

Bearsuit
Princess, You're A Test



Rugged Wilderness & Mountain Man No More
Dropping Feathers




Little Comets
Isles

The Devil's Round Up 18th September 2011

This week's round up of the tracks that I haven't had the space to post...

I Break Horses

From: Stockholm, Sweden

I Break Horses sound like they've been breathing the Cocteau Twins' oxygen. Load Your Eyes shimmers like an ingenue at a spring ball.  

Go Try

 I Break Horses - Load Your Eyes (Star Slinger Load Your 808 Remix) by Bella Union

Language of Flowers

From:Belfast, United Kingdom

Language of Flowers don't actually exist any more which is a pity because the world needs more bands that sounds like the entire Sarah Records back catalogue put through a blender and served up in a champagne glass. 

Go Try

MP3 - Language of Flowers - Where You Belong

This track is linked direct from the Language of Flowers Last.FM site and is therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright


Early To Bed
From: Europe & United States

Simply lovely a perfect sound to drift off to. 


Go Try

 Early to Bed -Till We Arrive by EardrumsPop 

It's The Weekend

It's the weekend and what better way to chill out from the exertions of a hard week at work or play than to settle back in your favourite armchair and indulge in some weekend related sounds...

 Super Woman by Weekend Players

 The Blanche Hudson Weekend - Union Square Blackout by stereomacko

 50 cigarettes (Dead to Me) by WeekendFM

 Wild Weekend - Black and White by junglefevertheband

 The Weekend People - Police by Mark Kelson 


 Weekend Wolves - Venus by WEEKEND WOLVES 


MP3 - Weekend Phantom - Basement Youth
This track is linked direct from the Weekend Phantom Last.FM site so please don't claim breach of copyright

Multiple Ghosts In The Machine

It's been a while since my last ghost related band post so for those of you suffering from withdrawal symptoms here's a bumper edition. The search goes on. 


Go Try

 ANAL BLUES- ALBUM VERSION MP3 by GHOSTS OF PROGRESS

 Canvas by cloudsareghosts

 Tiger Mask by GHOSTS

 The Black Ghosts - Any Way You Choose To Give It by TheBlackGhosts

 Ghost Riots - Bulletdodger by Ghost Riots

 Swamp Fox by The Ghost Jockeys

 Jukebox the Ghost - The Stars by partisanpr

Forever Autumn

It's September and Autumn (fall to the Devil's American readers) is making it's presence felt. The leaves are starting to fall from the trees, the birds are making plans for their winter holidays and the nights are drawing in. What better way to commemorate the end of summer and the start of the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness than some autumn related tunes. 

Go Try

 Autumn Leaves by The Best Pessimist

 Autumn Leaves & The Morning Rain by RAWDEAL

 02.The given hand by As Autumn Leaves

 Raindrops In The River by autumnowls

 Dirty Basin - Autumn by DirtyBasin

 01 - Autumn Comets - I Can´t Solve Your Problems Anymore by Cuac Musica

 Falling Into Autumn - Lets hide by Falling into Autumn

 Falling Into Autumn - Hotel Beds Ft Johnny Citizen by Falling into Autumn

Zechs Pistols

Zechs Marquise

From: El Paso, Texas, United States

The Mars Volta sibling band Zechs Marquise are back with Getting Paid, a new album of entertaining electro pop with an unusual folksy twist. Nah just kidding it's more of the hazy, multifaceted psych prog that we've come to know and love. It's a little more muscular, a little more sure of itself, and, dare I say it a little more accessible, than their earlier stuff and it's all the better for it. 


Never mind the bollocks, here's the Zechs pistols. 

Go Try


MP3 - Zechs Marquise - Everlasting Beacon of Light
This track is published with the permission of Us/Them Group so please don't claim breach of copyright


Go Visit


Zechs Marquise - Facebook : Website : Last.FM

In For The Kill

Kick To Kill
From: Glasgow, Scotland

That bands like Scottish glum rockers with the unnecessarily violent name Kick To Kill (not to be confused with the extreme political Hatecore band of the same name) are releasing records in 2011 is proof that God really does exist.

Black Kisses is such a strong song it should be tested for anabolic steroids. It sounds like U2 before Bono contracted the messiah complex. It's partner in crime, Mushroom Cloud is more akin to U2's less successful but much better and less self important glum rock cousins The Sound. It doesn't hit the heights of Black Kisses but there aren't many tracks you'll hear this year that could go the distance against one of the best tracks the Devil's heard all year.

Now about that name....

Go Try

KICK TO KILL - Black Kisses by Flowers In The Dustbin

KICK TO KILL - Mushroom Cloud by Flowers In The Dustbin


Go Visit

Kick To Kill - Facebook

Smalltown Boys : The Sequel

Smalltown America Records

From: Belfast, Northern Ireland

For those of you who have been waiting with bated breath for the second instalment of the Devil's tribute to Ireland's leading independent record label Smalltown America you can breath easily again because here it is...

Vvolves
From: Cardiff, Wales

Cardiff's VVolves are DIY'ed up to the max. They record and produce their own material as well as handcrafting all the artwork. The Devil's kind of people. They're a mixed up potage of Vampire Weekend, Radiohead and James Blake at their finest.

Go Try

People by VVOLVES


Our Krypton Son
From: Derry, Northern Ireland

Our Krypton Son is the alter ego of Chris McConaghy whose debut self-titled record (due in September) is a Kubrickian fusion of The Cinematic Orchestra, Richard Hawley and Nick Drake.
Go Try

Gargantuan by Our Krypton Son


General Fiasco
From: Magherafelt, Northern Ireland

General Fiasco's sound recalls the ragged soulfulness of early Strokes merged with the popchops of fellow countrymen Two Door Cinema Club. Since releasing their Infectious label debut in 2009 the band have toured the world and the experience shows; the band's new songs are sassy, sexy and mine previously undiscovered musical landscapes.

Go Try

We Are The Foolish by General Fiasco by infectiousmusicuk

Battle For Paris
From: London, United Kingdom

London five piece Battle For Paris make ferocious hardcore music combining duelling guitars with complex rhythms and throat-lacerating vocals circa Pulled Apart By Horses and Fall of Troy. Their debut album ‘Superstar’, due to be released later this year is sure to be quite something. You'll love their tight, compelling sound - five guys united on a musical mission!

Go Try

Battle For Paris - Fuck Your Déjà Vu by Tangled Talk Records

Mnemotechnic
From: Brest, France

Mnemotechnic started in 2009 in Brest, France when four musicians got together to create a strong and singular rock identity evocative of Soulwax, Death From Above 1979 and Not Squares. On stage, eye to eye with the audience, in the heat, in the distortion, through a piercing high voice, they deliver an electric storm. In their own words 'imagine the sincere anger, noisiness and punk rock of At The Drive-In blended together with the dancy coolness of The Rapture.'

Go Try

Dear Brittle Lights by mnemotechnic

Video Killed The Radio Star 11th September 2011

Picture courtesy of deviant art by sixhundredsixty for more check out http://sixhundredsixty.deviantart.com/

Girls Names
Seance On A Wet Afternoon



Airship
Algebra



Treetop Flyers
It's About Time

The Devil's Round Up 11th September 2011

This week's round up of the tracks that I haven't had the space to post...

Xray Eyeballs
From: Brooklyn, New York, United States

Xray Eyeballs are the coolest thing to come out of New York since the Strokes' fridge.

Go Try

Xray Eyeballs - Sundae by subpop

Dead Rabbits
From: Southampton, United Kingdom

Dead Rabbits sound like The Brian Jonestown Massacre if Anton Newcombe had been born within spitting distance of the Solent.

Go Try

Make Me Believe by Dead-Rabbits

Sarandon
From: London, England

Uncomplicated punk tinged pop as addictive as heroin and more infectious than an airborne pathogen.

Go Try

Piglet - Sarandon by Odd Box Records

Sock Puppets
From: Denmark

Sock Puppets sound like the product of sexual union between the Ramones and the Shangri Las which makes them the best Danish export since Carlsberg.

MP3 - Sock Puppets - Ton Of Fun

This track is linked direct from the Sock Puppets Last.FM site and is therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright

Girl Muscle
From: Cardiff, South Wales

If they keep releasing tracks as good as Girl Muscle's Talk Like An American Steak Records' status as the home of some of South Wales' least popular musicians is sorely threatened.

Go Try

Girl Muscle - Talk Like An American by Lt Meat